SHAMBHALA SUN jANUAry 2010 89
By andrea miller
BooKs in Brief
ThE arT OF haPPinEss in a TrOUBLEd WOrLd
By His Holiness the dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, md
Doubleday, 2009; 346 pp., $26 (cloth)
The Art of Happiness was released in 1998 with a small first print-
ing and modest expectations, but—to the surprise of the pub-
lishing industry—it became a New York Times best-seller. The
Art of Happiness in a Troubled World, the newest title in the Art
of Happiness series, examines personal happiness in relation to
broader issues, such as violence, prejudice, and terrorism. the
dalai Lama and Cutler’s underlying point is that by cultivating
compassion and empathy we can simultaneously work toward
our own happiness and overcoming society’s ills. In the closing
chapter, the authors offer specific techniques to intentionally in-
crease our capacity for these positive emotions.
MindFUL MOThErhOOd
Practical Tools for staying sane during
Pregnancy and your Child’s First year
By Cassandra Vieten
New Harbringer Publications, 2009; 200 pp., $16.95 (paper)
Cassandra Vieten makes it clear—mindful motherhood isn’t
another goal you must achieve in order to be a good mother.
nor is it about always staying calm in the face of labor pains or
temper tantrums. mindful motherhood is about being aware
of your experience from moment to moment without judg-
ing it, and about staying connected to your baby regardless of
what’s happening. the book has a foreword by Sylvia Boor-
stein and is divided into twenty-four chapters that each take
about twenty minutes to read—a manageable amount of time
even for busy moms.
ThE COMPLETE TassaJara COOKBOOK
recipes, Techniques, and reflections From the Famed Zen Kitchen
By edward espe Brown
Shambhala Publications, 2009; 526 pp., $35 (cloth)
The Complete Tassajara Cookbook is a collection of Zen chef ed-
ward espé Brown’s best work. thirty-five years ago, when Brown
wrote Tassajara Cooking, he shied away from giving recipes in
the usual sense, preferring to list ingredients without specific
quantities in hopes of encouraging experimentation. Some of
the recipes in this new volume are likewise refreshingly loose,
but Brown has come to realize that more specific instructions
allow people to add to their repertoire, so most of the recipes are
more precise. the one constant is that he always conveys his de-
light in vegetarian cooking. It’s not just about working on food,
he says, but working on yourself, and awakening your capacities
for living in the moment.
riPraP and COLd MOUnTain POEMs
By gary Snyder
Counterpoint, 2009; 96 pp., $24 (cloth)
pulitzer prize-winner gary Snyder had his first book of poems
published in 1959 in Japan by origin press. now Counterpoint is
celebrating the fiftieth anniversary with this new edition, which
also includes Snyder’s translation of Han Shan’s Cold Mountain
Poems and a Cd of Snyder reading all the poems in this collec-
tion. riprap is infused with Buddhist thought, environmental-
ism, and a certain sexual energy. But what I enjoy most about
this classic is that it is replete with natural imagery, which is as
gorgeous as it is lean.
yOU dOn’T haVE TO BE a BUddhisT TO KnOW nOThing
an illustrious Collection of Thoughts on naught
Conceived and edited by Joan konner
Prometheus Books, 2009; 200 pp., $17 (cloth)
You Don’t Have to Be a Buddhist to Know Nothing is a collec-
tion of quotes about nothing and its cousins—silence, voids, and
emptiness. But as the editor, Joan konner, points out, nothing
and everything are joined at the hip. “If there weren’t a vacuum,
everything would be static,” she says. “there could be no mo-
tion between bodies... no rhythm without pause, no meaning
without space between words and sentences, no emptiness out
of which new thoughts, new works, might arise.” the quotes—
always insightful, sometimes wickedly funny—are by thinkers of
all stripes, such as Sylvia plath, Bob dylan, Lao tzu, and Shake-
speare. konner was also the editor of The Atheist’s Bible.